GOOD NEWS FOR ALL NATIONS
Mission at the Heart of the NT
By Martin Goldsmith . Hodder and Stoughton. 166 pages. £6.99
ISBN 0 340 78609 4
Martin Goldsmith lives and breathes Mission. From his early service with OMF in the 1960s, through 24 years as a lecturer at All Nations Christian College and into world-travelling retirement, Martin has been indefatigable in teaching people about the task of taking the gospel to the whole world. This book is another product of his ministry. The first five chapters on Matthew, Luke, John and Acts were given as the Didsbury Lectures at the Nazarene College in Manchester. Two further chapters to explore 'mission at the heart of the New Testament' are on Romans and a final short chapter bridges the 2000 years from the New Testament till today.
The two 'horror' stories in the Introduction show why this book is important. One depicts an evangelical family for whom the parable of the Good Samaritan is just about helping people with no realisation of the revolutionary view it presents to a Jewish audience. The other is about a Professor of Missions in the US who was abandoning biblical and theological courses in favour of pragmatic, cultural and sociological ones. This book is written for such people and all who are unaware of the centrality of Mission to the New Testament.
